


Speak softly love and hold me warm against your heart

by JuliaBaggins



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, Infinity War spoilers, M/M, Memories, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Seriously don't read this before having seen the movie, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 00:15:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14460915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuliaBaggins/pseuds/JuliaBaggins
Summary: SPOILERS for Infinity War! Be warned!!A little different take at Steve & Bucky's last scene in the movie, and then later, a happy end.





	Speak softly love and hold me warm against your heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MissTrafalgarMeyer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissTrafalgarMeyer/gifts).



> Oh my god. Infinity War. What can I say. When the people from the screening before ours got out of the cinema, we tried to analyze their feelings, tried to imagine what the look in their eyes meant, why none were talking to each other, and now I know. I'm still in so much pain and I loved the movie and I had to write a little something. The way Bucky said "Steve" in the end, this will haunt me. Here, I take this scene a little different, and then give them their well deserved happy ending. Hope you enjoy!

"Steve"

Bucky's voice is nothing more than a whisper but Steve hears him, of course he does. If there’s one thing in the universe that Steve Rogers would always hear, it’s Bucky Barnes’ voice.

When Steve turns around, Bucky is tumbling to his knees, and without even thinking about his movements, he is there to catch him. Bucky is in his arms, and that means everything should be alright, shouldn't it? The hint of a smile plays around Bucky's lips and Steve wants to believe it so badly. Wants to believe that everything will be fine, but he can't.

"Bucky, what's wrong?", Steve whispers, while softly touching Bucky's hair. Something just feels so _off_ here, causing Steve's skin to break into goosebumps.

"I think this is it", Bucky answers, and no, _nonono,_ Steve doesn't want to hear that. Not with how Bucky's voice sounds, not with the single tear sliding down his cheek, and especially not with that mournful smile. After all these years, everything they faced together, the dark times and those moments that were so very beautiful, Steve still can’t bear to even think of the possibility of loosing Bucky. Not again. Not ever again.

"No, don't say this Buck, we..."

 

Bucky raises his hand as if to touch Steve's face, and when he's nearly there, fingers hovering just above his skin, the tips of his fingers start to dissolve into splitters of black dust. Steve witnesses this in horror, how Bucky's whole arm vanishes, but Bucky doesn't look at it. His gaze is fixed on Steve's face, and when he starts talking once again, their eyes find each other's. One last time.

"Stevie, I love you", Bucky says, and it's as simple as that.

Steve knows this, of course he does. Probably he always has. 

Bucky loves Steve. Steve loves Bucky. That’s all that ever had mattered.

Steve leans down to place his lips over Bucky's. And then Bucky is gone.

The black dust running through his fingers is everything that's left of Bucky Barnes, and Steve can't do anything but watch how a soft breeze of wind blows it away. And then there's nothing. There's a hole in the world, one where Bucky used to be. And there's another one, a black nothingness, where Steve Rogers' heart used to be.

 

After what seems like a century, Steve looks up. Above green trees, there’s a bright blue sky, adored by a few fluffy clouds, and this should look beautiful. Shouldn’t it? (Steve can’t imagine that anything will ever be beautiful or good in this world again; not when his very world just ended.)

A memory hits Steve, of a day so long ago and yet so bright in his mind, like a lighthouse in the sea of so many losses before and after. It had been a stormy day filled with rain and chills, such a sharp contrast to today’s weather. Might this be some irony of fate, how the best thing in his life started in a storm and now ended in bright sunshine? He can still see Bucky’s face, the bright smile he had received after his shy introduction, and how Bucky had tried out his name on his tongue. _Steve._ He had liked the way this dark-haired kid said it, and when Bucky had suggested that they might walk home together from school that day, Steve had said yes. They had been best friends from that moment on, and so much more when time passed. 

Back then in Brooklyn, they used to treasure the warm days with bright sunshine, taking walks along the water whenever Steve’s health would allow it. Stealing shy glances and little touches whenever no one was around. The first time they held hands had been on a warm July evening, just a few days after Steve’s birthday. When the sun got close to touching the horizon, Bucky had placed his hand right next to Steve’s, their pinkies touching. Steve remembers the thundering of his own heart when he had finally gripped Bucky’s hand and interlaced their fingers together; holding on while wishing he never had to let go.

And then of course, there had been a moment when he did let go. When Bucky fell and Steve’s fingers weren’t convinced that they themselves should hold on. For years, this had been Steve’s worst memory, the one that most often had him wake up trembling in a lonely bed. 

A few months ago though, it had happened to a bed that wasn’t empty, and while Bucky had held him close, he had told Steve that it was okay. Hadn’t they gone through all of this, they wouldn’t have been there that night, feeling each other’s heartbeats that might as well have been one since a century ago. They wouldn’t have been able to go to dinner the evening before, sharing a kiss over their salads in the nice little restaurant. And it had been so much more than okay.

Steve feels as if he finally had everything; the light returning to Bucky’s eyes and his lips curving into an easy smile so often, both of them being finally allowed to heal, to be together. And now, there’s nothing. Steve Rogers is on his knees under a bright Wakandan sky, and his world has just ended.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

When Bucky wakes up, it's to dim lights and unfamiliar surroundings. He doesn’t know where he is, or what has happened – his memories are a big mess, and he couldn’t say how he got here. But it’s not as if it would matter, not when there’s only one thing that does.

“Steve?”, Bucky croaks out, his voice rough from not being used.

There’s no answer, and Bucky tries to fight the panic that threatens to settle in.

“Stevie?”, a little louder this time, and finally, _finally,_ there’s a movement in the corner of his eye.

Bucky looks to his side, and Steve is there. And everything is alright. Bucky has barely been able to take in Steve’s face, the hard lines there, before Steve has taken him into his arms, and if anything has ever felt like coming home, it’s this hug.

“I love you too”, Steve whispers, and Bucky holds him a little tighter.

“Steve, what happened?”, he wants to know, but Steve just shakes his head. 

“Too much. There was a fight, the world at stake, and we lost. And I, I lost _you._ ”

For now, Steve feels he should leave it at that; not wanting to overwhelm Bucky with talks of time travels and everything that followed. It had been so much, and there had been so many moments when Steve had been nearly sure that they would never get here, that he’d never be allowed to see Bucky again.

Steve is shaking now, and Bucky starts carding his fingers through Steve’s hair while he lays down on the bed with Bucky.

“Please never leave me again”, Steve whispers against Bucky's chest and he nods, because if he has a word in it, he’d never ever let Steve go. And suddenly, there’s a question burning in his mind, one that needs to be asked.

“Stevie, can I ask you something?”

“Of course, everything”, Steve answers, while lifting his head a little, so he’s able to look into Bucky’s eyes.

“Marry me?”

“What?”, asked with so much wonder in Steve’s voice.

“I’m not sure what happened, but as far as I can remember, it was 2018, which means it would be legal for us to get married. And I, Steve, for nearly a century, there's nothing I've wanted as much. I love you. More than everything.”

Bucky keeps looking at Steve, and when his face breaks out into a wide grin, it’s like the sun rising on a cloudy day. There are tears in Steve’s blue eyes, and the following kiss is a _Yes_ as well as an _I love you_. And finally, this is it. After a century of fighting for it, Steve Rogers  & Bucky Barnes have got their happy ending.

**Author's Note:**

> Work title from Andy Williams' "Speak Softly Love"
> 
> Thanks for reading! If you left a nice comment it would make my day ♥


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